French President Emmanuel Macron has announced 23 billion euros ($27bn) of investment during the Africa Forward summit in Kenya.

Macron said on Monday that Africa and France had a “partnership of equals” with common objectives, as he announced 14 billion euros ($16.4bn) of investments in private and public funds from French companies, and 9 billion euros ($10.5bn) from African ones, on energy transition, agriculture and artificial intelligence (AI).

These investments would create 250,000 jobs in France and Africa, Macron said at the two-day summit – France’s first in an English-speaking African country – which started on Monday.

“We are not simply here to come and invest on the African continent alongside you – we need great African business leaders to come and invest in France,” he told the heads of state and leaders of more than 30 African nations, including Francophone countries, at Nairobi’s convention centre.

“And that too is what underpins this relationship, now entirely free of hang-ups,” Macron said.

The summit is seen as an attempt by France to strengthen its ties with English-speaking African countries amid waning ties with its former colonies on the continent.

Africa’s richest man, Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, was in attendance, as were executives from leading French firms TotalEnergies and Orange.

The French shipping group CMA CGM committed an investment of 700 million euros ($820m) to modernise a terminal at the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

Many have observed that the summit comes as France’s influence in Africa has faded, with French forces recently forced to withdraw from former colonies. Macron aims to renew France’s engagement with the African continent, which he said he views as a “whole”, while positioning Europe as a more reliable trade partner than China or the United States.

In advance of the summit, Macron told Paris-based magazine The Africa Report that colonialism could no longer be blamed for all of Africa’s challenges. “We must not exonerate from all responsibility the seven decades that followed independence,” he said, calling on African leaders to improve governance.

Speaking at the summit, Macron also said the process of returning African artworks looted during the colonial era had become “unstoppable”. The French parliament last week passed a law paving the way for the government to return looted African cultural artefacts.

At a time when many African nations, particularly in the Sahel region, are reducing or expelling foreign military forces, Kenya is hosting a growing international military presence. A month before the summit, about 800 French soldiers arrived in Kenya on a navy ship.

Kenyan President William Ruto praised his relationship with France, saying, “We should no longer think in terms of aid and loans, but rather in terms of investment and what Africa has to offer.” (Al Jazeera)

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